Press Room

The Government

Women Empowerment

Women make up half the population of Kenya. They take up the lead role in raising children, playing a vital role in the economy and ensuring the family has enough money to put food on the table. Despite this enormous contribution, women suffer discrimination and hardship every day.

They are often denied opportunity to realize their full potential as Kenyan citizens. Although the Kenyan women have sufficient protections under the new constitution, some of those protections are yet to be implemented. These include the "one third" gender rule in public appointments.

The Government is committed to promoting and protecting the role of women in society. The Government will take concrete and practical measures to empower women and deliver full equality in both law and practice. The government will implement the ‘one-third’ rule to ensure at least 33% of all Government and parastatal appointments are women.

In order to eradicate some barbaric traditions that undermine women, the Government will increase civic education to help eradicate Female Genital Mutilation. The Government will also promote education for girls and increase the number of boarding schools. Parents who marry off their daughters before they complete schools will be punished. Discrimination on the grounds of gender will be criminalized and the government will give the Gender and Equalities Commission prosecution powers in order to protect women.

In order to empower women the Government will encourage growth of micro-finance institutions the majority of whose custom